This is the heart of the gospel: Jesus is surpassingly good. He, and he alone, is worth everything. Nothing else can compare to him, and when we have only him, then through him, we have everything we might need.

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We are working our way slowly through this passage in Philippians. These verses are very dense with meaning, so we’ll be spending several weeks here, but I want us to remember that each “lesson” goes along with the whole passage. Last time we looked at what Paul meant when he told the Philippians to watch out for those “mutilators of the flesh,” and that we are “the circumcision.” He continues:

For we are the circumcision, the ones who worship by the Spirit of God, boast in Christ Jesus, and do not put confidence in the flesh ​— ​ ⁴ although I have reasons for confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he has grounds for confidence in the flesh, I have more: ⁵ circumcised the eighth day; of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; regarding the law, a Pharisee; ⁶ regarding zeal, persecuting the church; regarding the righteousness that is in the law, blameless.
⁷ But everything that was a gain to me, I have considered to be a loss because of Christ.

One of the key issues that came up repeatedly in the early church was the issue of following the Jewish law. Last time we looked at how Paul, throughout all his letters, makes it clear that we do not need to follow the various laws and regulations of the Jewish law. The Jewish leaders of the church in Jerusalem agreed with him, and made it clear in Acts chapter 15. Here, Paul says that we are the chosen people of God, who worship Jesus Christ, and “do not put confidence in the flesh.”

What does he mean by this expression? In the first place, he means that we do not put confidence in the fact that we have been circumcised, or that we were born Jewish, or went through Jewish conversion. Paul makes this clear by saying “I could put confidence in the flesh, if anyone could,” and lists his birth into the tribe of Benjamin, and his circumcision among such things. But he adds more. Not only was he born a Hebrew, but he points out he was a Pharisee, which was the strictest version of Judaism, and among Pharisees, he was particularly zealous. He claims that he was blameless in following the law.

Many Christians in modern times wonder how Paul could say he was blameless according to the law? The God’s Word version captures his thought very forcefully:

When it comes to winning God’s approval by obeying Jewish laws, I was perfect. (Philippians 3:6, GW)

We find this difficult to believe, because we have an understanding of the law that has been shaped by the teaching of Jesus. Jews at the time of Jesus and Paul had created a system for how to follow God’s law perfectly. So, for instance, God commanded this, through Moses:

⁸ “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. (Exodus 20:8 ESV)

The Jews were worried about how to apply this, so they made up a bunch of additional rules that, in their minds, would guarantee that they followed this command properly. So, for instance, they came up with a number of steps they were allowed to walk on the Sabbath. They weren’t allowed to “work” by lighting lamps on the Sabbath, so they made sure they had enough oil in the lamps to burn for a whole night and day. They could do certain farm chores, like caring for their animals (almost everyone was involved with agriculture in some way), but not others. Now, the Bible never actually tells how many steps a person can walk on the Sabbath, or that a person shouldn’t light a lamp on the Sabbath. It never actually specifies exactly what should or shouldn’t be done on the Sabbath, except it excludes “work.” But at about this point in history, the man-made rules of this type began to be more important to them than the actual scripture.

What Paul is saying is that he followed all the man-made rules correctly. Jesus is the one who said “if you follow the rules, but you have sin in your heart, you have still broken the law.” By that measure, Paul was never blameless. But by the measure of man made rules, Paul had a perfect record.

There’s something else here, that we may not realize at first glance. What Paul is telling us here, and what we know from other sources, is that he was pursuing a career as a Jewish Rabbi, and he was headed for elite status. His mentor was Rabbi Gamaliel, whose teaching still provides some foundational ideas for Jews, even today. Paul was a rising star, an exceptionally intelligent scholar, with all the right connections, and all the right attitudes. His future was bright indeed. To understand better, imagine a young man today who went to Harvard Law School, and graduated summa cum laude. He passed the bar exam with ease, the very first time he took it. He clerked for a Supreme Court Justice, and knows several senators. Just when he seems poised to take the world by storm, he quits practicing law and becomes a missionary to the country of Djibouti. (If you haven’t heard of Djibouti, that’s the point).

Or, for a more mundane example, imagine someone who has worked her way up the levels in her company. She’s put in hard hours and sacrificed, and seems about to become the first female CEO of her company. But instead of doing that, she leaves, giving up all that hard work, and that huge opportunity.

That was Paul’s situation. He gave up everything he had worked to achieve. He gave up what others thought was a very bright future. He gave it all up because:

But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. ⁸ Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.

Jesus Christ is worth more than a bright future as an elite leader. Jesus Christ is worth more than an excellent career, or the praise of your peers, or money, or power, a nice retirement, or any of the other things we human beings think are valuable. In expressing this, Paul is simply putting the teachings of Jesus into practice. Jesus himself said:

³⁷ Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. ³⁸ And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. ³⁹ Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. (Matthew 10:37-39, ESV)

Nothing in this life, not even our closest relationships, are worth as much as Jesus. On another occasion, Jesus put it even more strongly:

²⁵ Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, ²⁶ “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. ²⁷ Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. ²⁸ For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? ²⁹ Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, ³⁰ saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ ³¹ Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? ³² And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. ³³ So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. (Luke 14:25-33, ESV)

Jesus makes it clear. When we become his disciples, we have only him, we are to be ready to give up everything else, even our own lives. Anything else we “have” is given through Jesus, and by Jesus, and must be subordinate to Jesus. He even says, in the Luke passage above: “Hey, you should consider this carefully before becoming my disciple. Can you handle this extreme cost?”

Now, does this mean you need to quit your job, divorce your spouse and neglect your children? Not at all. Jesus was using extreme language to make a point. I think what it means  is that you have these things—really, everything—only in and through Jesus. I was a disciple of Jesus when I met Kari (so was she). We both felt that it was his desire for us to be married. You might say I am married to Kari through Jesus. In our marriage, my goal is for the will and work of Jesus to be done through me, with and for Kari. So you might say my marriage is for Jesus.

The same sorts of things should be true of our work. If you work in construction, then, for as long as you are in that industry, you are there for Jesus. Yes, you are there to earn a living, and maybe because you enjoy that kind of work. Or, maybe, because you have no other options right now. But regardless, if you are a disciple of Jesus, you are in construction (for the moment, anyway) because (at least for now) Jesus wants you there. Firstly, he wants to reach others who don’t know him, and he wants to do that through you. He also wants to encourage other disciples, and again, he wants to do it through you. And perhaps he wants to build things well—again, through you.

Here’s an analogy that might help. Picture a girl of about twelve years old whose parents abandoned her at a young age. She’s bounced around the foster system for some time. And now, she’s been adopted by a very rich (and kind) father. Before she was adopted, she had some worn out clothes and things—nothing of any real value. Now, as part of the rich father’s family, she has a nice house, and delicious food to eat, beautiful clothing, and opportunities in life that weren’t available to her before. All of the new, wonderful things in her life come through her adoption into the father’s family. She has none of it without the father. With the father, she has all of it.

That’s the way it is meant to be with us and Jesus. I have Jesus, and everything else I have is conditional upon how Jesus wants to use it in my life. My house is his to use. My job is his. I’m not pursuing my own goals, but his goals for my life. Now, that’s not necessarily to say I can never move or change jobs. But when I do, I do so in consultation with Jesus, seeking his purposes for my life, and for any change I might want to make. I have had times in my life when it seemed like Jesus was OK with me changing jobs. I’ve had other times when he made it clear he wanted me to stay put. But this is the deal: I really have nothing, except Jesus Christ.

Jesus put this in a parable for us:

⁴⁴ “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.
⁴⁵ “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, ⁴⁶ who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it. (Matthew 13:44-46, ESV)

We give up everything in order to have the one thing that is beyond price: Jesus Christ himself. When we have Jesus, then we have everything. When we don’t have Jesus, nothing we have is worth anything.

In the nineteen fifties, there was a young man named Jim Elliot who, along with four other young men, determined that Jesus wanted, through them, to take the gospel to an unreached jungle tribe in the Amazon. A few years before this, Elliot had written:

“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”

He meant, among other things, that even his own life was not his own to keep. All people die; no one gets to “keep” their own life. So, even if he were to give up his life, he was not giving up anything that was truly his anyway. What he gained by giving Jesus his life was an eternal life that no one could ever take from him.

A few years after writing that, Elliot and his friends were murdered in the Amazon jungle by the tribe they were trying to reach with the gospel of Jesus. He fully gave up what he could not keep. But at least three things happened as a result. That awful event, along with Jim Elliot’s quote, inspired at least two generations of Christians to take seriously the call of Jesus to give our entire selves into his keeping.  It also inspired many young people to become missionaries. Thirdly, their martyrdom was the catalyst that led to the peaceful conversion of that tribe to faith in Jesus Christ.

Jim Elliot might have been thinking of this passage in Philippians when he wrote his famous words. Nothing compares to the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus Christ. All things are worthless compared to Jesus. Everything that is good, that will endure, will also be found in and through Jesus Christ.

This is the heart of the gospel: Jesus is surpassingly good. He, and he alone, is worth everything. Nothing else can compare to him, and when we have only him, then through him, we have everything we might need.

I let the world tempt me into thinking that I’m missing out, or that I need to chase down my own goals, to have the life I want. But scripture says that all things are rubbish compared to Jesus Christ. Let the Holy Spirit speak to you today.